Book Review: Starfish,* by Lisa Fipps, published March 21, 2021, 256 pages (Kindle edition), Lexile 630, Recommended for grades 5-8 or ages 10 and up, but interest level includes grades 5-12. Please note: this book is not yet in the Pageturner library and will require student requests for purchases to be made per class.

Let’s start with a personal admission: I did not want to read this book! It’s been on my TBR list for over a year and I was only able to resist until yesterday when I stayed up all night, hooked. A semi-autobiographical story narrated in first person, free verse, about which Fipps notes in her afterword, “…[A] variation of every single mean thing people said or did to Ellie happened to me when I was a child. Fat Girl Rules exist.” I, too, know the Fat Girl Rules. And that’s why I didn’t want to read this book. I didn’t have an obsessed, tyrannical mother like El did; mercifully, I wasn’t even on my mother’s radar (she was a model).  At about 9, however, my father began a mantra he wielded until I left for college at 17, when he remarried and for several months forgot I existed, which was a relief. “Ya know, KITTY, the nearer to bone, the sweeter the meat!” He never called me any nickname except this, and only in this endlessly repeated sentence.  It terrified me, and every time he said it I knocked down the better part of a half gallon of ice cream and a package of Mother’s brand iced oatmeal cookies.  Eating felt like my only protection. I didn’t want him to eat ME.

“Why aren’t kids allowed to tell grown-ups when they’re wrong? They don’t know everything. Sometimes it’s as though they don’t know anything.” Despite her mother—the one who REALLY needs a shrink!—El is lucky to have her dad, a psychiatrist himself.  And she lives in a better time, when children are afforded at least some agency, in most families. (As a mom, I was blessed with children who didn’t hold back, and I’m grateful for all they’ve taught me. Without them, I’d be a luddite stuck in boomer White privilege, for the record, a very unhappy way to be.)  At first, El’s dad seems passive in the face of her mom’s relentless onslaught.  At the start of the school year, El is left out:

“Dad looks at Anaïs and Liam. Both are wearing new clothes. I tug on the hem of my old button-down shirt, trying to make it longer. “No new clothes for Ellie?” Dad asks Mom. “She gained more weight this summer.

I’m afraid if we keep buying her bigger clothes, she’ll just let herself get bigger.” If Mom thinks I look

horrible now, wait until I can’t fit in anything—and have to go naked.”  

Thankfully, dad will later take her to a plus-size clothing store where everything she tries on fits and the owner is proudly “zaftig,” (1) a new word for El she embraces. But he also sets her up with a shrink, and then Ellie feels “Judased.”  El is so smart, always at the top of her class, and even when she feels she’s reached bottom, she still manages a hard-boiled joke,

“The whale has to go to a shrink? It’s a punch line for a bad fat joke.” 

What's more, every argument her parents have is about her, and they’re getting palpably worse. In a chapter titled Life on a Teeter-Totter,

“Dealing with my parents is like riding a teeter-totter nonstop. Dad promises me a shopping spree. Up I go.

“Good luck finding anything she can wear.” Down I go. “We’ll do just fine without you.” Up I go. Mom

grabs her briefcase, purse, and keys. “Just don’t forget El’s first appointment with the therapist.” Down I

go.” 

In lockstep with their mother, brother Liam is the nastiest sort of bully, and even her older sister, Anais, consistently mistreats her:

“’Enjoy sixth grade, Splash,’ Anaïs calls over her shoulder as she leaves to start her senior year of high

school. That’s like saying to a shark bite victim, ‘Enjoy the free liposuction.’ I wonder if my sister even

remembers it’s her fault everyone calls me Splash, how that one word on one day changed my world.”

That nickname began at El’s 5th birthday party.  Her chosen theme was “Under the Sea,” and El dressed up in a whale bathing suit. She loved to swim in their pool and blissfully hurled herself into space for the perfect cannonball, but the negative reactions were swift and deliberately hurtful. Anais has never since addressed her by her real name, which spreads and perpetuates the harm. Liam whines that he wishes she didn’t even exist! Dad takes away his keys as punishment, but Liam never really shuts up. And at her luxe private school, where being thin is de rigeur, she’s known as the whale. Bullying these days is much worse than when I was 12, as El is now, and the burden is unbearable:

“HUNGRY GAMES I stare down the hallway, Katnissing in the Hungry Games, wanting nothing more than

to get out alive. I spot muttations— part piranha with their gnashing teeth, part wolverine with their

claws, and part hyena with their howling laughter —posing as students. I’m hungry for escape. They’re

hungry for laughs. And there’s no way out but through the arena. ‘Get back! Make room! Thar she blows!’

A guy sucks in his stomach and slams back against the hallway wall as if my blubber takes up all the room.”

Ironically, El inherited her fat cells from her mother. Mom’s sister, Aunt Zoey, suffered through bariatric surgery and was comatose for 6 weeks—now her mother drags her to a doctor who performs them:

“[A]s a hello, he says bariatric surgery is a growing option for obese kids. ‘A growing option, that supposed to be punny?’” [emphasis added]

Her jaundiced humor never fails and still allows her to resist. Here the author advises us that the earliest recommended age for this surgery is 14. (2) But the doctor provides published information that children as young as 5—even 2!—are having bariatric surgery. Some background here: when El was born, her mother bizarrely started screaming that something was wrong with her; instead of cuddling her she kept yelling, “What’s wrong with her? I know there’s something wrong. What is it? Just tell me!”  At this point, I’m wondering why mom hasn’t been institutionalized, and why dad hadn’t addressed her issues then, or ever since, really, although their arguments are increasingly heated and vitriolic. Her mother has even called her “a big ol’ FAT THING.”  She carries that knife buried deep in her heart.

El’s saviors at school are not merely characters but real teachers and friends: Mrs. Boardman, as Fipps writes in her afterword, “my junior high literature teacher and high school journalism teacher, who became my best friend, and who’s always been my number one cheerleader.”  And “Joan C. Waghorn Pochon, former librarian at my elementary school, who always greeted me with a smile, recommended amazing books, asked my opinion about what I’d read, made me feel welcome, and helped me see libraries as a refuge from the world, especially when the bullying got to be too much—and to all the countless librarians around the world like her who make a difference every day.”

El has Viv, too, and Gigi.  Viv is her bff, also “zaftig,” and Gigi is a pug El had rescued from a pug rescue center, where she continues to volunteer.  Gigi, too, was a key part of Fipps’ real life.  Sadly, Viv’s parents divorce and she has to move out of state, but then a new girl next door becomes a bff, too. Wouldn’t it be great if bffs were like potato chips, and you just had to have more than one? She doesn’t lose Viv, thanks to the internet. Catalina has a big, and big-hearted family, who kinda adopt El and are delighted to feed her her favorite dinner, chicken enchiladas. Catalina is also wise beyond her years, and she, too, carries the weight of victimization. They live in Texas, and White people yell at her and her family to “go back where ya came from!”   These people are so dumb--Mexico owned Texas before it was annexed to the states, so THEY’RE the ones who don’t belong! Strangers accost El about her weight, and strangers accost Catalina for being “alien.” At first El doesn’t understand the word in context, and Catalina explains they mean “illegal aliens,” not Vulcans. 

El also has Dr. Wood, the “skin and bones” shrink her dad found for her--who has to be the best shrink, ever. I can’t imagine this woman as real. At first, El refuses to talk, so Dr, Wood does art with her.  She asks El to draw how she feels, and when they’re both finished, El is stunned to see she’s drawn a gutted fish, its intestines hanging out; it’s how her mother makes her feel. They duel with Star Wars light sabers, and once Dr. Wood even dresses up as a rabbit to bring El out of her shell.  By degrees, she shows El, or rather, she allows El to find for herself, ways to deal with all the bullies without causing hurt in retaliation—a very tall order, yet it works. For example, El learns more about the boy who always clings to a wall as though she takes up so much room nobody can pass, yelling “Thar she blows!”  Mrs. Pochon, the librarian, brings them together to make a display for the library, and El learns he is bright and sensitive.  Later, she sees him picking used shoes and clothes from a bin at a charity store, and El realizes his bullying is a form of self-defense. She learns not to absorb the hateful words, but to stand up for herself, instead,

“Doc walks over and writes Mom’s food rules on a whiteboard before sitting down. “Your turn.” “All the

rules are here. What’s left to do?” “Just think about it. It’ll come to you.” I stand in front of the board and

read Mom’s long list of rules. Then I grab the eraser and get rid of every last one.”

Finally, Dr. Wood brings her parents in for a session, specifying this is at El’s invitation. El is understandably upset but in control of herself, this is her turn:

“’To drag me in there like I’m a freak of nature, and want him to cut me, slice me open, rearrange and

reattach organs —just because of this.” I grab my stomach. Shake it. “It’s not what a mom should do!’”

El has kept a journal of every reprehensible, repulsive, revolting word her mother has thrown at her, and she has it with her now, as she addresses her:

“’I’m learning to love me. The fat on my body never felt as heavy as your words on my heart.’ I walk over to

her and place in her hands a notebook full of all the ugly words she’s ever said to me. ‘It’s time for you to

carry the weight.’ She crumbles.”  

Ours is a society that craves bodies so meager and emaciated that female models more nearly resemble 8-year old boys rather than real women. Advertised clothing is generally  intended to hang languorously on skeletal frames lacking breasts. The patriarchal hegemony requires women to have little to no agency, so they are best displayed as childlike and malleable.  Another popular modeling mode has been represented by Bella Hadid as an unfeeling and remote mannequin, an untouchable, unapproachable AI.  Not to demean Ms. Hadid, she’s amazing and hopefully making tons of money while it lasts. Male models are similarly far too thin and very young;  on the other hand THEY are regularly shown with the accoutrements of capitalism to depict adulthood: the suit jacket casually held over the shoulder with a finger, or the businessman’s satchel in the same location, a hand held atop in confident ownership. Reality, however, is vastly different.  The average American woman is 5’4” and weighs 170 pounds. (3)  Bella Hadid is 5’9” and weighed 140 pounds naturally, but had to lose 20 pounds and is now model-perfect at 120. (4) When I was 12, I was already 6’2” and weighed 165 pounds—that benchmark is nothing but a fever dream, at this point.

The stark disconnects between the demands of society and what real people actually look like is a grievous cause of anxiety and depression for many women—and also for some men.  Today on social media, girls and women are being urged to embrace eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia, illnesses so grave they can cause death. (5)

Starfish should be required reading for students in middle grades through high school. Ms. Fipps notes that she originally wrote the book for high school students.  Then she realized they would look back and remember that yes, they’d been bullied—but past is past.  So she rewrote it for middle school students. Students in middle school should hopefully be able to take examples from the book to do something positive about the bullying happening to them NOW.

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*Starfish has won 13 awards: 2022 Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature, as well as: 

Honor Book 2022 Association for Library Service to Children  Notable Children’s Book
-2022 International Literacy Association Notable Books
 for a Global Society Award Winner
-2022 National Council of Teachers of English
 Charlotte Huck Award Honor Book
-2022 NCTE/Children’s Literature Assembly
 Notable Children’s Books in the Language Arts Award
-2022 Jane Addams Children’s Book Award  Finalist
-2022 YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults winner
-2022 YALSA Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults winner
2021 Internationale Jugendbibliothek  White Raven
-2022 YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers
-Friends of American Writers Young People’s Literature Award
-2023 Sakura Medal, Chapter Books Category (Japan)
-2022 Judy Lopez Memorial Award Honor Book

(1) SOME HISTORY ABOUT “ZAFTIG” “The word comes from the Yiddish zaftik, which literally means "juicy," from zaft, or "juice," and it became a common English adjective in the 1930s.” https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/zaftig

“...[T]he collective unconscious that has sculpted, shall we say mannequins, goes much further back than a mere 5,513 years. Thirty-five thousand years ago, sculptures carved from mammoths’ tusks and limestone, that can only be described as zaftig were being created throughout Europe. They are known as Venus figures. So, when you think about it, the earliest artists ever, those that lived before history had a starting date, depicted their ideal women as voluptuous.” Excerpt: https://thewritesideof50.com/2013/11/26/the-zaftig-female-form-its-history/

“Unfortunately for the guys, men are never zaftig themselves.  Under the circumstances discussed in the preceding paragraph, they get big, or large, or (God forbid) extra-large.  But the word zaftig coming out of a man’s mouth to describe a woman is a life-saver. It means she’s not fat at all; she’s luscious.  I refer to grown men, of course — men with enough experience to reject the concept of embracing skin-covered sinews — not those young ones still yearning to make it with a ballet dancer.” Read more at: https://ninamishkin.com/2015/01/11/zaftig-a-useful-word-for-january/

“Rubens, Making Women Look Good Since 1698 : Though Peter Paul Rubens’ impressive works are around 400 years old, I still find comfort in his representations of the female body. They are round, plush, and beautiful. Ruben’s women make me feel more comfortable in my own skin, regardless of my weight or how many dimples are on my thighs – okay, that’s not entirely true, I have a mini-breakdown any time I discover one and try chalking it up more to the fact that I’m getting older and less that I haven’t stepped foot in a gym in at least four years... What is going on in our society where models and actresses are all thinner than thin, so thin, in fact, I’d guess if a muscular or Big Handsome Man (BHM), were to place a hand on their shoulder they’d break in half! Personally, I’d rather look more like Adele, America Ferrera, or the OLD Emma Stone than Nicole Richie, Keira Knightly, or the NEW Emma Stone. Part of it is genes, of course, and one man’s poison is another man’s cure, but women whose genes would never allow them to be a size zero are killing themselves, literally, through diet (read: starvation) and over-exercise.  Excerpt: https://parkstone.international/2012/09/13/rubens-making-women-look-good-since-1698/
There’s a wonderful example of Rubens’ ‘zaftig’ women in this painting, Venus in Front of the Mirror:  https://i0.wp.com/parkstone.international/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/peter-paul-rubens-venus-in-front-of-the-mirror1.jpg 

(2) BARIATRIC SURGERY, STATS. 

“Surgical interventions for obesity have quintupled in the world in 15 years (140,000 in 2003 vs. 720,000 in 2018), however growth has slowed since 2011. This progressive increase varies by country and from 2008 through 2018, 6.5 million people have undergone bariatric surgery. Growth was strongest in the Asia/Pacific region. Belgium is the country performing the most operations per number of inhabitants: (127 operations per 100,000). France is in 7th place with 72 operations per 100,000 and 70% of patients are operated in surgical services that perform more than 100 procedures per year. The sleeve gastrectomy (SG) is the most commonly performed intervention while the adjustable gastric band (AGB) has practically disappeared. Along with the intragastric balloon, novel  procedures are being evaluated. A real management policy is needed to respond to this evolution of both epidemiology and techniques... Activity has doubled in North America, tripled in Europe and almost quadrupled in Central and South America, but the real explosion has occurred in the countries of the Asia/Pacific zone.” Read more at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1878788622001783

“Am I a Candidate for Bariatric Surgery?   ...Age—while most patients are between the ages of 18 and 65, we can treat adolescents age13 and over if they have achieved full bone growth, and some patients over 65 if they are medically cleared for surgery. 

  Body mass index (BMI)—You must have a body mass index greater than 40, or greater than 35 plus one or more weight-related health problems such as diabetes, hypertension (high blood pressure), high cholesterol, or sleep apnea.”  There are further requirements, as well: https://www.mountsinai.org/care/surgery/services/bariatric-surgery/candidate

(3) “ What’s the Average Weight for Women?.. The average American female over 20 years of age weighs 170.8 pounds  and stands at 63.5 inches (in), which is almost 5 feet (ft) 4 in. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that about 31.9% of adults in the United States have obesity.” https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/body-measurements.htm

“The 'Average' Woman Is Now Size 16 Or 18. Why Do Retailers Keep Failing Her?... Despite these findings, most retailers still consider the sizes above 16 to be "plus size." As most haven’t really caught up with the evolution of the women’s bodies in America and beyond, for the “average woman," it can be a struggle to shop for clothes.” https://www.forbes.com/sites/didemtali/2016/09/30/the-average-woman-size/  N.B. This article was published in 2016.  The average woman’s dress size is now considered to be a plus size.   

(4) Bella Hadid’s Measurements: 5 feet 9 inches or 175 cm (1.75 m), Weight:54 kg or 120 pounds, Breast Size:34 inches, Bra Size:32B, Body Measurements:34-24-32 inches, Dress Size:4 (US) From: https://bodhizazen.org/bella-hadid-measurements/

Watch Bella Hadid as the ultimate ethereal AI, while a dress is being spray-painted on her body, at: https://youtu.be/rb0fweBHTjg?si=COMzw5m9k7uhupL3

(5) “Eating disorders are debilitating conditions that negatively impact a person’s life across many domains.
They represent the third most common chronic illnesses, and they take a substantial economic toll on the individual, their families and society at large.
No one is fully immune from an eating disorder; they can affect people from all walks of life, no matter your age, gender, or ethnicity.
Eating disorders have become even more pronounced and prevalent during and following the COVID-19 pandemic, partly because of the social distancing policies, mandated stay at home orders, and the disruption to health care services.

“In fact, in 2020 there was a 66% increase in eating disorder hospital admissions!... 75% of people with an eating disorder don’t seek professional help. There are three eating disorders: anorexia nervosa [starving] , bulimia [eat & purge], and binge-eating.

“Eating disorders are associated with the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disorder. Every 62 minutes at least one person dies as a direct result from an eating disorder... Worldwide, up 70 million people have an eating disorder. This includes 5.5 million people from America39, nearly 3 million people from the UK and more than 900,000 people from Australia40 have an eating disorder.

“...[Y]oung people between the ages of 15 and 24 with anorexia have ten times the risk of dying compared to their same-aged peers. It is also worth noting that around 10,200 deaths in 2018-2019 in the USA were attributed to eating disorders, with anorexia nervosa making up a large proportion of these... The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on most people around the world. One of the unfortunate consequences of the pandemic is the rise in eating disorders and eating disorder behaviours. [Statistics follow.] https://breakbingeeating.com/eating-disorder-statistics/

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